Sorry!

You may be noticing that this site isn't looking too great at the moment. It’s due to the apparent monthly over-use of my web address popcorn-monkey.com which seems ridiculous to me. Some of the pages images are hosted on that site which is why the graphics seem missing.

Anyhoo, things will be back to normal by the end of the week (hopefully!).

Update: Yay, things are back working again. I think I've sussed out the problem so hopefully the graphic loss won't happen again!

Knight Rider - 1st Season Premiere

I'm probably the only person that liked the recent pilot for Knight Rider and I'm probably the only person that's going to enjoy the new series!

I've just watched the web exclusive premiere episode of the new Knight Rider, not due to be screened in the US until 24th September.

From the "Get Go!" its full of car chases, explosions and exiting life-or-death action. Its definitely influenced by action cinema and in comparison does an impressive job considering the show is made on a much smaller budget to its celluloid cousin.

There's a whole load of CGI which a lot of the Knight Rider purists don't agree with but I don't mind, the show should keep up with todays technology and if CGI is the way forward "go use the hell out of it!". Using the new FX tech, K.I.T.T can do lots of extra things including Transformer esque transformations into other vehicles, it looks totally awesome.

Mike Tracer/Knight (played by Justin Bruening) has an interesting back story as an Iraq war Vet with a healthy dose of amnesia! I expect this will follow Mike through the rest of the series in a Wolverine/X-Men way as he tries to understand his past and the people he had dealings with.

The rest of the characters in the cast seems pretty standard for the genre but features enough eye candy with a nice amount of humour to keep me entertained. Val Kilmer is still the voice of K.I.T.T which was quite a surprise, I thought an unknown but similar sounding person would have taken over after the pilot episode.

Roll on episode 2!

'Another Way To Die' - Quantum of Solace

What do you think of the new James Bond theme?

Mass Effect - The Movie!

"Mass Effect" has started its journey to the big screen. Numerous sources have confirmed that producer Avi Arad has optioned the rights to Bioware's sci-fi RPG from the developer's parent publisher Electronic Arts.

Turning "Mass Effect" into a movie, or at least trying to do so, is pretty much a no-brainer. Even those who didn't love it would have to admit that it has a lot more meat to its narrative than most games. You've got a hard-ass protagonist, a crusty bureaucracy trying to hold him back, a motley supporting cast, a hugely diverse (if a bit similar looking) bunch of settings, and an alien invasion fueled by technology that nobody but our hero fully understands.

Those are certainly a lot of standard elements for a science-fiction movie. Though Mass Effect, rather intriguingly, has a main character whose look and personality and even gender can, to some extent, be shaped by the player. So the makers of a movie will have to figure out just who exactly Commander Shephard is.

>>> Click here to read the full article from the Variety website.



I've also heard Warner Bros are in talks with the Japanese games company Capcom to produce 'Lost Planet' into a movie.

Happy 80th Adam West

Adam West, 80 today. Happy Birthday old dude!

Hasselhoff in "Beverly Hills Ninja 2"

Beverly Hills Ninja 2, with David Hasselhoff - need I say anymore?


I hope you like the 'WELL OFFICIAL' poster I made!

Spider-man 4 & 5 confirmed!

Yes, you heard right. Both the 4th and 5th installment of the Spider-man films are due to begin shooting next year back-to-back reports the Times Online with Tobey Maguire back in the Spidey suit after signing a deal which will earn him a total of $50 million!

The rest of the cast at the moment is unconfirmed as well as the story and more importantly, the villains.

Sam Raimi is down to direct both the films, lets hope they'll be better than the third movie.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Season 4

Yay! The fourth season of one of my most favourite comedies has just started.

For most of you who haven't even heard of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia', its a hilarious sitcom based around four crazy loser friends (and Danny DeVito) who own and work at an Irish theme bar in Philadelphia. Yeah, that sounds pretty bad but its actually a seriously decent show and the comedy is at my level of 'wrong'.



Ninja Video have all the seasons to watch online if you're interested. I highly recommend it to all that are not easily offended!

New Disneyland Movie

Disney bosses are hoping to cash in on the success of the Pirates Of The Caribbean movie series - by taking another theme park attraction to the big screen.

The swashbuckling adventures started life as a ride at Disneyland, California.

And movie executives have headed back to the magical kingdom, this time to create a movie based on Tomorrowland, a futuristic section of the same theme park.

According to Daily Variety, Dwayne Johnson - aka The Rock - is being lined up to star in the space-based movie.

* Taken from IMDb, 18/09/2008


Damn, I was really hoping for a stupid Space Mountain movie when I saw the headline!

Darth Vader being a smartass

Follow the links below for more funny Darth clips.

Vader Sessions - This was made using lots of James Earl Jones voice clips, its quite funny especially the radio bits at the end.

Vader Plays The Blues - Darth on the harmonica, classic!

Man On Wire (2008)

I've been wanting to watch 'Man On Wire' ever since hearing about it on the BBC Breakfast News a few months ago but had to wait until last week to catch a one-day-only performance at my local cinema.

The film is a brilliant documentary about the French performance artist, Philippe Petit who in 1974 tightrope walked between the newly built twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. It was totally illegal and had to be planned meticulously (over six years) like a heist, not too different to the 'Oceans 11' movie but this actually happened!

Throughout the film all the various members of Petit's team talk about their roles in planning the event, aided with lots of film footage and photos from the time. Each person gave their own perspective on what happened, some of the stories were really funny.

The way the documentary was put together gave it a really exciting feel but for me, the heist element of the film was the most interesting.

They had to wear disguises to gain access to the buildings, work in two separate teams, avoid detection from the security guards and under the cover of darkness shoot wire between the two towers and anchor it without causing attention. And on top of that, Petit then did the famous walk between the towers, not once, but eight times over the space of 45 minutes.

These moments are brilliantly shot, black & white reenactments mixed with original footage and narration from Petit and the others involved.


Its fantastic, funny and totally overwhelming. I recommend it to everyone to watch, preferably at the cinema to get a better sense of the shear scale of everything.

Click here to listen to a 2006 BBC Radio Nottingham interview with Philippe Petit.

The only piece of criticism I have for 'Man On Wire' would probably be down to the reel of film my cinema had. Since it was just a one day only screening and for it to cater to all that wanted to see it the version I saw included subtitles for everyone and also audio descriptive subtitles, e.g; "Radio noises", "Bells ringing". That did distract me from viewing the film at times as I found myself reading the subtitles for the English speaking parts. I'm hoping the DVD release will have these as options to be turned on or off.

Heroes Season 3 - starts 22/09/08

Just to remind everyone that the third season of Heroes starts on Monday, 22nd September. Be sure to check out Ninja Video on Tuesday to watch it, I'm sure it'll be there by then.

Hopefully this one will be a full season (no writers strike please!).

When did Ninja's become funny?

So when did ninjas become light hearted comedic characters in modern day movie culture? Lets start from the beginning with a quick bit of history.

The ninjas past is covered with quite a bit of secrecy, according to Wikipedia (not always the best source of reliable info!) the earliest recording was written in the 15th century. They were used for selective strikes, espionage, assassination, and infiltration of enemy strongholds.

The actual look of the ninja is a bit unclear. Some believe that they original wore suits of armour similar to that of the samurai's. Ninja's probably didn't wear all black as commonly associated. In the old Japanese Kabuki theaters actors portraying ninjas would wear black costumes to give the audience the impression of being invisible but a real ninja would have probably worn colours similar to the environment he/she was around, to blend in easily. Apparently dark blues, even reds were more effective at night than black for invisibility!

That's the insulting history lesson over, I'm sure if any real ninja are alerted to this I'll have a shuriken coming this way real soon!

So how did ninjas get into the pop culture of today? Although they have been depicted in many books over the years (I'm sure) and in the last century in Japanese films, it was probably the 1967 James Bond film, 'You Only Live Twice' that really introduced ninjas to the majority of the world. They were used as deadly assassin's but not too deadly since James Bond had to inevitably kick their asses being the lead.

America in the eighties saw a huge boom of ninja on screen, often with Sho Kosugi donning the black costume in various roles. Used as cannon fodder, wave upon wave of ninja would appear in these movies, solely for the purpose of being killed easily by the main American actor. Lets not forget the crossover, 'American Ninja'. This film marked the moment it was actually kinda cool to be a Ninja and introduced the idea you didn't have to be Asian to become one.

Believe it or not, Lee Van Cleef (from 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly') played the lead ninja in the TV show 'The Master' back in the eighties.

I'm not going to pretend that these films were any good. Although I get my own enjoyment watching them I class them as cheap, bargain bucket throwaway films. They were so bad they became funny. Its a combination of terrible scripts, cheesy acting, crap stunts and poor funding that does it for me.


Once it gets to a comedy level it then becomes easily accessible for children. Dumb down the violence a bit and its perfect for kids to enjoy. 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (one of the most ridiculous concepts ever although one I got fully absorbed into as a kid) was a really popular franchise and I'll assume the '3 Ninjas' films were too although I won't admit to watching any of them.

In answer to my original question, "When did Ninja's become funny?" I'd have to say it was the eighties although it was probably unintentional.

New Site Design

Hi everyone!

I decided to give this site a lick of paint but in doing so, lost all my many many links ("d'oh!").

If you know of any decent links and you know my email address please send them this way.

I hope you all like the new look, it may take a while to get used to!

Help the Homeless Ninjas!

Full Time Ninjas is a new comedy desperately looking for funding. If you have any spare cash wing it their way, like a deadly shuriken!!!

Chucky invades Time Square, NY

"...wanna play?"

Ghostbuster 3 - cast rumours

Recent reports suggested bosses at Columbia - the studio behind the first two movies in 1984 and 1989 - were lining up Seth Rogen, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd to join original stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson in a new movie.

* Taken from IMDb news, 05/09/2008



At last, Ernie Hudson finally gets his name mentioned! He never seemed to get any acknowledgment towards the Ghostbusters films from the press/media.

I like the idea of Rogen, Carrell and Rudd joining the cast. They all seem to have the right mindset to become decent Ghostbuster characters in my opinion.

Ghostbusters 3 'in development'

Two writers from the US version of The Office have been recruited to write a third instalment of Ghostbusters, according to trade newspaper Variety.

Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky's hiring is seen as a sure sign the long-mooted comedy will finally be made.

Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel saw Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as bumbling scientists who rid New York of paranormal threats.

It is hoped the new film will reunite the original cast.

Columbia Pictures has declined to comment on whether a third Ghostbusters was in development, Variety reported.

But director John Landis, who worked with Aykroyd on The Blues Brothers and Trading Places, has said the film would definitely be made.

"I'm not involved but I know it's happening," he told the BBC News website at the Venice Film Festival.

Eisenberg and Stupnitsky recently collaborated with Ramis on the script for his new film Year One.

Last year the original Ghostbusters cast signed up to lend their faces and voices to a computer game based on the hit film series.


The game's storyline was being written by stars Aykroyd (Ray Stanz) and Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler), who also scripted the first two films.

But the game's future was thrown into doubt when publisher Activision announced it would not be releasing the finished product.

Developers Vivendi insisted the game had not been canceled, and that it would be published by another company.

* Pinched from the BBC Entertainment News site, 05/09/2008

Film trailer voice-over king dies

Don LaFontaine, who voiced more than 5,000 movie trailers, has died in Los Angeles aged 68.

During his 33-year career he provided the voice for films including The Terminator and Dr Strangelove.

He was best known for his catchphrase used on several trailers that began with the words "In a world where..."

LaFontaine died in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday from complications caused by an ongoing lung-related illness, his agent said.

For the full story click here.

* Taken from the BBC Enetertainment news site, 03/09/2008



Film trailers won't ever be the same!